okay so ive been licensed for about 3 months now, got my technician back in the spring and just recently upgraded to general. been trying to use the 147.225 repeater in my area and i can hear people on it just fine but when i try to key up nobody seems to hear me, or at least nobody responds. i figured out there might be a CTCSS tone i need to program in but the repeater directory just says "PL 100" and i wasnt totally sure if that means i transmit that tone or receive it or both.

i programmed 100hz into my baofeng on the TX side and tried again during what sounded like a pretty active net last tuesday and still nothing. honestly starting to wonder if my radio is even putting out enough power to hit the thing, im only about 8 miles out and running 5 watts on a stock antenna. or maybe i keyed up at a bad time and interrupted someone? i really dont want to be that guy who steps on conversations, i just want to figure out what im doing wrong before i make it worse.

so the "PL 100" thing means you need to transmit a 100hz CTCSS tone to access the repeater - you got that part right. the receive side (sometimes called DCS or CTCSS squelch) is usually optional on your end, it just means your radio will only open its squelch when it hears that tone from the repeater. most people dont bother enabling it on receive unless theyre in a noisy area.

8 miles on 5 watts should be totally fine for most repeaters unless theres terrain in the way. one thing to check - make sure you have the offset programmed correctly. for 2m repeaters on that frequency range youre looking at a minus 600khz offset, meaning your radio transmits on 146.625 while listening on 147.225. if you dont have the offset set up right youre basically just transmitting on the wrong frequency and the repeater never hears you. that trips up a lot of new folks. if you can confirm that offset is in there id bet thats your issue.

yeah what he said about the offset, that got me too when i first started out. also dont stress too much about stepping on people - honestly just wait for a gap and say your call sign and that youre monitoring or whatever. most folks on repeaters are pretty welcoming to new hams, at least the ones around here are. the nets usually have a check-in period anyway where the net control specifically asks for new stations so that might be a good time to try. good luck with it